For the Germantown Academy head boys basketball coach, this is his 24th season at the helm. Just last year, he earned his 500th career coaching victory late in the season.

Someone with that kind of resume in the sport, it would seem unusual for Fenerty to have been nervous prior to Tuesday afternoon’s start of the 2012-13 basketball season.

For Fenerty, however, what stood out about the end of last season was not his personal coaching achievement or his team’s level of success. What he remembers most is wondering if he would ever coach again.

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In early February, right as Fenerty was sitting on career win No. 499, he took ill — diagnosed with a bone marrow disorder. He missed one game initially, came back to coach the next day before being told he must sit out the rest of the year.

So on Tuesday, Fenerty was back doing something that for much of the spring and summer he was not certain he would ever get to do again.

“I know I’m lucky,” Fenerty said, GA prevailing on Tuesday, 75-53 over Princeton Day School. “I feel like I’ve been given a second chance to do what I love to do.”

“I know it’s a cliché, but I really love what I do. I love teaching in the classroom and I love coaching. I honestly love what I do and I know I’m lucky I can still get to do it.”

That said, after all these years, was he really nervous prior to Tuesday’s game?

“I was scared …,” Fenerty said “All day, everybody kept asking me how I was feeling. My daughter, Erin, kept calling me to make sure I went to get my pressure checked.”

The school nurse at GA checks Fenerty’s blood pressure every single day. She tested it twice Tuesday, being that it was the day of the first game.

Fenerty also sees his doctor every two weeks to have his blood checked. He knows this routine will be something he has to do the rest of his life. His disorder is not curable, but is treatable.

“When I go into that room to have them take my blood,” he said, “I see all these people getting chemo and all kinds of other stuff. I know I’m damn lucky.”

“I am probably feeling better now than I have in five years.”

And Fenerty was certainly feeling even better after Tuesday’s game. GA (1-0) had four players in double figures. Julian Moore led the way with 21 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Greg Dotson had 19 points and nine boards while Nick Lindner had 15 points, James Drury 13. Patrick Sawyer finished with seven rebounds.

“The biggest thing we wanted to see was continuity and balance,” said Lindner, the Lafayette recruit. “As a team, we don’t want one person going off and the other four not. We have so much talent. We want to see that balance and we accomplished that (Tuesday).”

The Patriots scored the game’s first 12 points and used a 13-2 run late in the second quarter to be up 16, 42-26, at the break. The Panthers, led by Davon Reed’s 20 points, never got closer than a dozen in the second half. The margin got as high as 29 late.

This allowed Fenerty the chance to stay calm during his return to the bench. His “unusual” demeanor was not lost on his players, who were just relieved to see him back pacing along the team bench.

“It means a lot,” said Moore, the Penn State recruit. “He is our leader. He holds us all together and when we lost him last year, we lost a big part of our team and who we are.”

“He did seem a little bit nervous. But, once the game got going and he was back in his element, he was fine. You know, he’s been doing it for almost 100 years, so once the game got going, he was back to fine.”

Fenerty may have been coaching a long time, but in a way, this is a season for him unlike any other. He’s done many of the same things over and over at GA for more than two decades, but this time, he has a whole new appreciation for them.

“I have never felt better in my life,” Fenerty said.

Jim Fenerty is no spring chicken. But considering all he went through in the past year, he sure has a bounce in his step now as if he was one.